Ancelotti ponders playing Torres

22 April 2011 02:00

Carlo Ancelotti has revealed he would consider gambling Chelsea's entire season - and possibly his own future - on Fernando Torres in the Barclays Premier League game against West Ham.
Blues manager Ancelotti refused to rule out resting the red-hot Didier Drogba and recalling £50million flop Torres for the must-win game at Stamford Bridge. That is despite seeing the same decision backfire spectacularly in last week's Champions League defeat at Manchester United, a result which left Ancelotti all but resigned to losing his job.
Opting for Drogba over Torres in the two games since then has given Chelsea a glimmer of hope of completing the greatest comeback in Premier League title history - something that would surely make owner Roman Abramovich think twice about sacking his manager.
The Blues realistically need to win all five of their remaining games to stand any chance of overhauling Manchester United's six-point lead. They also need to score enough times to ensure they have a superior goal difference to United should that come into play.
So ditching Drogba for a player who has now gone 893 minutes without finding the net would be an almighty gamble by Ancelotti, but it is one he would be willing to take.
"Maybe I can use some rotation to maintain the players' freshness," Ancelotti said. "It wouldn't be easy to leave Drogba out, but there's a chance we could leave him out on Saturday. We started with Torres against (Manchester) City. We won the game when Didier came on. It might be a good solution to give him the last 30 minutes of the game because he's fresh and fit."